From: owner-onlyjoni-digest@smoe.org (onlyJMDL Digest) To: onlyjoni-digest@smoe.org Subject: onlyJMDL Digest V2010 #303 Reply-To: joni@smoe.org Sender: owner-onlyjoni-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-onlyjoni-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk Archives: http://www.smoe.org/lists/onlyjoni Websites: http://www.jmdl.com http://www.jonimitchell.com Unsubscribe: mailto:onlyjoni-digest-request@smoe.org?body=unsubscribe onlyJMDL Digest Sunday, October 31 2010 Volume 2010 : Number 303 ========== TOPICS and authors in this Digest: -------- anti-feminism [Michel BYRNE ] Re: New article: Joni is Supreme ["Mark" ] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 30 Oct 2010 14:44:27 +0000 From: Michel BYRNE Subject: anti-feminism Hi Ingrid, thanks for your post - there's so much in it (and in ther previous discussion) that it'll take a while yet to properly reflect on it all, but just to say: like you, i've always been perplexed and disappointed by Joni's rejection of the term 'feminist'. To equate it with man-hating just because of one strand of the movement seems shallow and lazy. But that said, she clearly isn't a 'joiner' of anything, and would probably reject *any* '-ism' - even though she seems to practice Individualism pretty thoroughly! Her album 'Turbulent Indigo' is in many ways an expression of solidarity with other women, while songs in 'Hissing of Summer Lawns' had already looked at the way both genders play on the roles assigned to them ('Scarlett' manipulates, Edith plays the game, the She in 'Hissing' is resigned to her shackles (because of the material benifits?), though Harry's wife eventually rebels. In the Taming the Tiger album, 'No apologies' questions male behaviour at personal and political levels with razorsharp intelligence - how the woman who wrote that and 'Don't Interrupt the Sorrow' can say she's not a feminist is beyond me! But Joni's art seems to come primarily from deep intuition and feeling, from her individual experience, so that when she rationalises or intellectualises she can sound self-obsessed or solipsistic (I *think* that's the right word...) - as if political injustice hadn't been around before it entered her consciousness in the 80s (it's revealing that she seems to attribute her political 'waking up' to feeling personally cheated by the taxman, not to a more idealistic solidarity with the oppressed), or as if women's situation hadn't been precarious in so many ways before she turned her attention to 'feminist' issues (in her music) in the early 1990s. But I think it's just how she works as an artist - when issues affect her deeply enough, they get channelled into her music, driven by her emotional ego rather than a more intellectual identification with other groups. At least that's how I see it - but apologies if most of this doesn't make any sense! :) Thanks all for the great posts. Michel ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 30 Oct 2010 10:51:00 -0700 From: "Mark" Subject: Re: New article: Joni is Supreme This an interesting review. It's short but telling in some ways. We've seen a lot of footage from YouTube and elsewhere of Joni in performance. To me, even in the earliest performances, she almost always looks confident and capable of giving fresh but polished, well-rehearsed renditions of her songs. She does seem to be more relaxed in small venue type settings. She seemed to be very comfortable performing in front of TV cameras as well. I just watched the featured video on JoniMitchell.com of Johnny Cash introducing her and Joni giving a stunning rendition of 'California'. But this review catches her at the moment of vulnerability when she was in the process of gestating the songs that would appear on 'Blue'. I've read a lot about her sensitivity and seeming frailty in those years. This paragraph is particularly telling: "Her Festival Hall concert was her first in Britain since January and one of her rare appearances anywhere. One can understand how, for such a sensitive person whose performances involve reliving deep felt emotional experiences, to go out on stage and sing can be a terrifying occurrence. Early in Saturday's act, failing to project her voice, forgetting the occasional song and at one point being completely unable to tune up for a particular number, it looked as if Joni's nervousness would defeat her." But this is a positive review and it goes on to tell how she triumphed over whatever demons she was battling at the time and gave a fine show to an appreciative audience. I found this interesting as well: "Brought back for an encore she chose the classic "Circle Game," written some time ago for a musician friend who thought he was over the hill at 21, and called on her manager Elliot Roberts and a self-conscious Graham Nash to help her and the audience with the choruses. If Joni does as she keeps threatening and gives up her already rare live performances then our loss will be monumental." The review is from November of 1970 of a concert she gave in London and apparently "a self-conscious Graham Nash" was present. She did perform 'California' at this concert and I wonder how this fits into her relationship with James and what was going on in her mind at the time. 'Will you take me as I am, strung out on another man.' And there is that final sentence about threatening to give up performing. I wonder if this is her ambivalence about fame and fortune and the music business starting to kick in full force or if it was her general state of mind at the time, pulling her down, maybe making her feel inadequate and just generally confused and depressed. Mark in Seattle - -----Original Message----- From: TheStaff@JoniMitchell.com Sent: Friday, October 29, 2010 6:31 PM To: joni@smoe.org Subject: New article: Joni is Supreme A new article has been added to the Library at JoniMitchell.com: Title: Joni is Supreme Publication: New Musical Express Date: 1970.11.28 Read it here: http://jonimitchell.com/library/view.cfm?id=2282 ------------------------------ End of onlyJMDL Digest V2010 #303 ********************************* ------- Post messages to the list by clicking here: mailto:joni@smoe.org Unsubscribe by clicking here: mailto:onlyjoni-digest-request@smoe.org?body=unsubscribe